Penn State College Cup Final Central

SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The
top-seeded Nittany Lion women's soccer team will play in the College Cup Final
for the first time in program history on Sunday at 4 p.m. (ESPNU) against
second-seeded North Carolina.

Penn State moved into the national title match with a dramatic 2-1 overtime
victory over top-seeded Florida State on Friday in Torero Stadium. After a Maya Hayes goal made it 1-0 in the
57th minute, Penn State yielded a score to the Seminoles in the final minute,
but senior Christine Nairn ended the contest at the 91:12 mark to send the
Lions into the championship bout.

The Nittany Lions join Wisconsin (1991) as the only two Big Ten universities
that have played in the women's soccer national championship match.

The second-seeded North Carolina Tar Heels advanced to the College Cup Final
with a golden goal from leading scorer Kealia Ohai in double overtime of a 1-0
victory over top-seeded Stanford on Friday night.

The Nittany Lions and Tar Heels have played five times before, including once
in the College Cup Semifinals (1999).
North Carolina owns a 4-1 edge in the all-time series. Penn State's win in the series came during
the regular season in 1999.

While the Nittany Lion program is new to the national title match, North
Carolina has an illustrious history of success in the College Cup Final. North Carolina has won the College Cup 20
times since the NCAA Women's Soccer Tournament began in 1982. The Tar Heels will be playing in the College
Cup Final for the 23rd time on Sunday afternoon out of a possible 31 women's
soccer championship games.

Penn State's 2012 journey has been a tremendous ride for head coach Erica Walsh
and the Nittany Lions. The Lions are
thrilled to have the opportunity to compete for a national title for the first
time in school history.

Quoteboard:Head Coach Erica Walsh"Two days ago my goal was to be sitting here in
front of you and to see some familiar faces. The coverage has been fantastic
it's great to see how far women's soccer has come. We think back to 1994 when
Penn State started their program. I went to college in 1993 and didn't even
have Penn State as an option, so it's exciting to see how our sport has grown
over the years and the opportunities that are available to these student
athletes to come and play in front of a crowd last night that was excited, they
were educated they were into it. Despite the pouring rain the field was
fantastic and what a perfect environment for these guys to showcase their
skills and all their hard work so I just want to thank the University of San
Diego, the NCAA, and everyone else that was involved in the organizing
committee for putting on such a wonderful event."

On the possibility of a let down in tomorrow's
championship game..."You
just have to spend a little bit of time with these players to answer that
question. I laugh, I smile because I don't think they're capable of it, in fact
I know they're not capable of it. There were moments in this season when I had
that question in my mind, but that question has been answered time and time
again- whether it's a Friday Saturday schedule or whether it's an overtime win,
whether it's just the moment in the game where they had the ability to crack
and they didn't so maybe that question was asked in September or early October,
but now in December I can tell you with great certainty that these guys can
handle anything you throw out at them."On North Carolina..."Saw a lot of talent, a lot of experience, a lot
of pace, and I saw a lot of the things that we've seen all season long. I was
talking last night about our experiences in the Big 10, mainly Nebraska which is
a team that put on a tremendous amount of pressure for 90 minutes and at
moments we started to crack in that game, but again that's a month and a half
ago now and we have learned a lot about ourselves since that moment so I think
through our experiences this season, through the teams we've been able to
schedule, we've been awarded the opportunity to travel and play the best teams
in the country we're prepared for someone like UNC or anybody we would face at
this point in the season."